How I Work

I’m dedicated to helping individuals and groups identify and achieve the outcomes they would most like. I work alone and also co-mediate with colleagues who complement my skills and experience. I particularly enjoy facilitating groups to learn how to manage conflict and have enabled some pretty dysfunctional groups to shift from frustration to joyful and collaborative creativity. At a more mundane level, I can teach groups to run effective and productive meetings.

In mediation, once a potential client contacts me I arrange to talk to both disputants separately explaining how I work and to ascertain whether each party is willing to engage in the process. This method allows everyone participating to have a voice and a stake in the outcomes.

I help people discover how they can choose to avoid the pain and cost (emotional and financial) of potential misunderstandings and conflicts in the future by communicating differently. I model this before, during and after the mediation by listening empathically to each disputant; identifying the met and unmet needs of each person/group.

This in turn develops insight and understanding about why the feelings and/or behaviour of each disputant has been affected.

When participants have a better understanding of themselves and each other in the situation being addressed, then they may choose to communicate differently and with more authenticity, especially in future ‘tricky’ situations. Resolving these issues then becomes a process of choosing to manage them responsibly and with compassion for self and others.